Halos
"Can't believe this place was supposed to kill people." ''-Samantha Jackson'' The Halos, collectively known as the "Halo Array" were a collection of incredibly massive constructs fashioned into the shape of rings that ranged from being 10,000 to 30,000 kilometers. The Halos were known for being sanctuaries, places of knowledge, scientific research, and most importantly, weapons of mass destruction on a galactic scale. They were responsible for a cleansing of all life in the galaxy 100,000 years ago and were deactivated in 2552. Today, they serve as places for people to live and conduct research, much like the Forerunners before them. Description The Halos within the Halo Array were large artificial constructs that had two sides to it on the Outer Side of the rings, the surface was covered with materials and equipment that provided things like harvesting minerals and elements from space to help power the ring, provide sources of fuel and heat for the inner surface. The inner face is what makes the Halos beautiful. Across the Inner Side of the ring, a massive environment boasting many different biomes and climates exist. This surface is remarkably Earth-like in appearance and atmospheric composition. It is quite capable of supporting oxygen-breathing carbon-based life forms, such as Forerunners, Humans, Sangheili, Mobians, and many other races. The rings rotate in space allowing centrifugal force to generate. This force gives the simulation of Earth-normal gravity that keeps the occupants and contents pressed to the surface. This force also keeps the atmosphere of the Halos from leaking into space. The Halos themselves measured between 10,000 and 30,000 kilometers in gross diameter and measuring 26 kilometers in thickness. The Inner Surface of the ring itself is less natural that it appears. On a rare few occasions, the actual surface of the rings were seen and they were vastly different than the finished product. The rings are underlain with 'skeletons' of what the designers wanted the surface to look like. Mountains themselves are held up by massive scaffolds that are eventually filled over. According to what is known about Forerunner Astroengineering regarding the construction of the biosphere, massive terraforming machines are driven across the surface. How the machines themselves determine what elements to deposit are not known. It is possible that the terraforming machines were programmed to analyze altitude and topography of the rings and would deposit or create the materials needed according to those facts. The process of construction for a ring can take as little as three months provided that the proper materials and working sentinels are present as evidence of Installation 00 constructing a replacement Installation 04 in December of 2552. The rings house multiple structures that are of Forerunner origin. They range in their functions from being simple communications networks to the actual control rooms that were meant to fire the rings. Communications nodes are characterized by their tall angular jutting structures that fire blue pulses up into the sky towards the center of the wheel, and are likely the first things that explorers to the rings would see. Also a key structure on the ring is a Cartographer, which is a structure that was designed to act as a guide to the Installation. Cartographers are giant and often give a full holographic representation of the ring's structure. They can even provide minute facts and details about the ring's construction or can serve as a station where users could assess damage or problems. Cartogrophers are also secondary communications hubs that can reach out to any other structure regardless of range on the ring. Libraries are often present on the Rings as well. These mysterious structures originally had a function of serving as a store of information. Forerunner Lifeworkers and scientists would study at these facilities and make facts about the genetic samples that were originally stored here. The Forerunners sought to use these facilities to search for a cure for the Flood. They also hoped to contain it within these structures. At the core of it all was a single physical storage device that was known as the Index. The Index contains both genetic information and the codes to fire Halo's main weapon, which would proceed to wipe its section of the galaxy. After 2553, a general order to secure all of the known Indexes in the galaxy was given, and as of 3239, that order still stands. As of 3239, only six Halos exist in Known Space, some of which are still in unknown or unreachable locations. It was thought at one time that there were once twelve of the rings, but eventually they were whittled down to the ones that we see today. Those that we are aware of are totally deactivated and will not respond to the signals sent by the other rings should they have the misfortune of firing. Two rings are settled and have a host of Human and Alien populations. They still serve as places of research though and are tourist destinations, a far cry from their original intentions as weapons of last resort. History & Function The Halos were designed to be weapons that were capable of being used to cleanse the galaxy of all life in order to stop the Flood from spreading throughout the Galaxy. Originally the Forerunner known as the Master Builder noted the Flood's terrible nature and would commission the first 12 Great Rings to be built. These rings were 30,000 kilometers in diameter and would be test fired on several worlds, one of which was a conquored world known as Faun Hakkor, which was a Human colony before their defeat and devolution around 150,000 BCE. The Great Rings would not be used for the purpose that they were originally intended. Before their activation to stop the Flood, the rings would be used twice in war - once over the San 'Shyuum Homeworld, and secondly at the Forerunner Capital, which resulted in massive deaths, even though the rings were used with relatively weak settings activated. The Forerunners would still prepare the rings for their purpose. During the closing days of the Forerunner-Flood War, the original twelve rings were destroyed, prompting the construction of six more rings that would only be 10,000 kilometers in diameter. These rings would be transported to the locations where they still stand today. The Array functioned through the use of producing a harmonic pulse that was accelerated to greater than the speed of light. The incredible nature of the Array's pulse played havoc with general relativity. The pulses were designed to destroy Central Nervous Systems of all intelligent life forms that possessed a complex anatomy since this was the target vector of the Flood. Any creature with a CNS could potentially be infected, and thus, the sole function of the Array was to kill any advanced life form in the galaxy. Hypothetically, if a user activated a Halo and was not at the Lesser Ark, Installation 00, the pulse from a single Halo would activate the nearest one once the blast got within range. Eventually, the harmonic bubbles would overlap the whole galaxy with nary a star spared. It was complete and total genocide that was done to keep the Flood from taking the galaxy. The rings would ultimately be fired from Installation 00 at around 100,000 BCE and wiped out all life in the galaxy. Thankfully before this, Forerunner Lifeworkers were able to save large amounts of life forms and kept them safe aboard the Ark while the galaxy was quiet for many hundreds of years, eventually returning them to their planets of origin. In the event of a Halo Event being cancelled before it is able to be carried out, the rings will emit something called a 'Standby Signal' at which all rings would all become prepped and ready to fire regardless of whether the Index is present at their control rooms or not. A Standby Signal assumes that a condition is beyond salvaging. The rings could only be fired from the Ark should a Standby Signal be initiated. After 2553, the Array is silent and has been for quite some time. They no longer function in the way that they once did. This extinction of the Halo Array has prompted colonization of the habitable surface. List of Halos The Halos were given names by the Forerunners that are symbols in their own language. However, when Humanity discovered their existence, they began to give them their own names. To this day, the Halos are named with Greek letters not necesarily labelling the rings in the order of their discovery, but simply as a classification system. All of the seven rings were named as follows: *Installation 01 (Beta Halo) *Installation 02 (Epsilon Halo) *Installation 03 (Kappa Halo) *Installation 04 (Alpha Halo) - Destroyed September 2552 **Installation 04b (Replacement for Alpha Halo) - Destroyed December 2552 *Installation 05 (Delta Halo) *Installation 06 (Gamma Halo) *Installation 07 (Zeta Halo) Monitors As with many Forerunner Installations, The Halo Array was crewed by custodians that were known as Monitors. Monitors were advanced Artificial Intelligences that were designed for the overseeing of a Forerunner Installation. Monitors attached to Halos had a numerical designation and a name that was associated with its personality. Out of all of the Halos known in the galaxy, there was only one Monitor that was designated as the Installation's Custodian. A list of all known Monitors is listed: *Installation 01 - 001 Primary Trinomial *Installation 02 - 007 Helixal Dichotomy *Installation 03 - 049 Abject Testament *Installation 04 - 343 Guilty Spark (Destroyed 2552, Fragments Recovered) *Installation 05 - 2401 Penitant Tangent *Installation 06 - 16807 Umbrial Equalibrium *Installation 07 - 117649 Gallant Imperator (Formerly 043 Mendicant Bias) Astronomy One particular constant that has been seen when observing the Halos of the Array is that the rings are always placed around a gas giant. This may have been a desire of the Forerunners because of the gas planets themselves probably providing resources for the ring in the form of gas or energy after it had been refined. Within the atmosphere of all of the gas giants, mining platforms are suspended from structures that are aloft in their upper atmospheres. These facilities are completely autonomous and are able to function with or without Forerunner input. These facilities gather gasses from the planets' atmospheres and refines them through some form of fusion to make it energy that can be stored and sent to the system's Installations via Statosentinels. Along with the fact that gas giants are always seen as an anchor point for Halos, each planet also has a sibling moon that is placed on the other side of the Installation. It's because of this that the Halos are placed in what is known as a Lagarange Point, where gravitational forces between two bodies cancels out, essentially suspending any given object between the both of them. Halo Installations are placed at an L1 Lagrange point between its respective gas giant and companion moon, as can be seen in the diagram. This point allows Halos to orbit along with the natural motion of the planets without being pulled into either the moon or the gas giant. Halos atmospheres are of sea-level pressure that are very close to that of Earth. The ring's rotation is typically enough to keep the atmosphere within the confines of the ring, some of the atmosphere leaks over the walls of the ring regardless. Forerunners have constructed artifiial gravity generators within the ring's superstructure that also allows a 'down' force to be applied to the ring. One can see through the atmosphere quite easily and can see stars even in the daytime. This may also be a fact that some stars are closer to the Installations than they are at other systems. The ring is also able to purge the atmosphere in certain sections of the ring if there is a contamination which will result in the termination of organic substances in the affected sections as the atmosphere and matter is evacuated into space. Other parts of the installation are not affected through Hard Light shields that seal off the purging from the rest of the installations. Halos are able to make course corrections on its own through the use of built in thruster systems. This can be used to avoid incoming debris that is bound for the ring. In the event of a possible collision, the ring may reallign itself to either make it so the object travells through the ring's gap in the center, or physically move itself out of its path. Halos can return to the Lagrange Point afterwards. The Halos are positioned around the galaxy in a way that when one is activated, the signals that resulted from one would have reached the other and caused a triggering of a second blast, and so on. List of Appearances *Soldier's Log (Mentioned Only) *Deception (First Appearance) Category:Technology Category:Weapon Category:Forerunners